This invention relates to graphical email content analyser and prioritiser including hierarchical email classification system in an email.
With an increase in e-mail usage there is a need to add powerful features to e-mail tools. E-mail usage is likely to increase at a phenomenal rate. This includes personal and official mail. With increasing mail volumes, users shall feel the need to use more powerful e-mail tools. Some of the problems that are likely to be faced by users in the near future are related to reading and replying to an enormous amount of mail.
The impact of this could be so far reaching especially in very influential and top positions (technical or management) that in a professional environment it could also lead to huge financial losses.
With a splurge in dot.com companies, and a present 160 million global users, e-mail usage is likely to assume gargantuan proportions and it is likely that in the future companies would appoint e-mail screeners to screen and prioritize mail. It is estimated that 500 million users would be hooked to the net by 2003. Add to this the growing intranet and extranet usage which is also likely to increase with e-business. Presently, the members of senior management in large organisations who handle high volume e-mail already have their secretaries to help them handle mail.
In fact 90% of time spent by a manager in any industry is in communicating (including meetings, telephone calls, mail), in the coming years there is going to be major shift towards mail usage especially in non-IT industries where the emphasis of communication is going to shift strategically to electronic mail.
With burgeoning e-mail quantity, there is a need to have special focus on how to choose mails that need the earliest attention E-mail usage is likely to become monotonous, ubiquitous and last but not the least extremely time consuming due to large volume. Consequently a great deal of conscious effort needs to be put into identifying and responding to the most important e-mail messages from the user""s perspective at the earliest, especially in a business scenario. This is because if the right importance is not given to the right e-mail messages at the right time, it could lead to undue delay and careless responses. Arbitrary e-mail Usage in e-business scenario could lead to catastrophic effects. On the other hand high quality e-mail content at the right time with richness and relevance is likely to have a very positive impact on any transaction e-business or otherwise.
E-mail being a human activity so far, is therefore riddled by human problems like fatigue, lack of concentration and lack of time. There is a dire need for e-mail tools, which can alleviate the problems described above.
While receiving e-mail from a host of recipients/senders there is a need to:
1. Identify as many e-mail messages as possible on the screen.
2. Prioritize them as much as possible based on subject, sender, keywords mainly from the user""s perspective.
3. Be able to give maximum attention to the most important mails as early as possible.
4. Be able to view as many mails as possible distributed into frames on one single screenful. This is to save the time spent in selecting and scrolling.
Presently:
1. The user does not know which mail is urgent from his/her perspective.
2. The user can see only 25 to 30 mails considering the area of his/her console/desktop with sender and subject information.
3. He/she cannot know which mail to see first on the basis of number of mails that he/she sees first on the screen which are ordinarily ranked on the basis of date/time received and/or Urgent/normal classification which is marked by the sender.
While handling a large amount of e-mail, users typically are nonplussed as to how to classify them and deal with them. The problem is even more severe when the amount of mail received ranges from thousands to millions, which would be a reality in the increasing networked world.
The object of this invention is to provide a method that addresses the problem of prioritizing large amount of e-mail graphically from the user""s perspective such that the user can respond to his/her most important mails within the right time period.
Further object of this invention is to provide a hierarchical email classification system to address the problem when large number of mails are received.
To achieve the said objectives this invention provides in a computing system consisting of a processor, associated memory, storage and input and output devices, and an email system characterised in that the said email system includes:
a means for the user to define search parameters and possible values for each parameter with corresponding graphical images, for identifying and/or prioritising received email messages,
a means for parsing the contents of the email header and body contents and displaying the parameter values of the said messages in graphical form using the said graphical images,
a means for grouping, and prioritising the said graphical message displays in accordance with user-defined requirements, and
a means for accessing any message selected from the said graphical display.
The said means for defining search parameters includes a parameter definition table containing parameter name, possible values and corresponding icon/symbol/letter/color.
The said parameters include sender, subject, and specific content keyword and/or phrase.
The said means for defining parameters values and corresponding graphical images includes buttons and icons in the graphical user interface that can be selected using a pointing device. The said buttons are arranged in 17 columns and 14 rows i.e. a total of 238 buttons.
The means for parsing the contents of the email header and body contents is a standard text parsing means.
The said means for grouping and prioritising the graphical display is a graphical sorting means.
The said means for accessing any message is the keyboard or pointing device.
The above system further comprises a means for increasing and reducing the size of the graphical display images depending on the volume of email so as to cover as many images as possible on the screen.
The above system further comprises a means for simultaneously displaying a screenful of significant number of e-mail contents, in separate scrollable frames, by mouse selection of e-mail button(s) or by search window means.
The above system further comprises a means for replying any e-mail in its frame while viewing one screenful of frames of e-mail contents of the chosen group(s).
According to another embodiment of the invention, the system further comprises a hierarchical email classification system consisting of
a means for the user to define parameters for classifying received email messages,
a means for classifying each email after parsing email content or header to obtain values of classification parameters,
a means for arranging and displaying said classified email messages in a hierarchical structure,
a means for descending or ascending to a particular level in the structured hierarchy,
a means for accessing a message at the lower level of the hierarchy from said display.
The said parameters for classification include sender, user, subject, domain, Keyword, size of the message and date of email message.
The said means for parsing the contents of the email header and body contents is a standard text parsing means.
The said means for displaying and selecting the said email messages in a hierarchical structure is by means of buttons in the graphical user interface.
The said means for accessing any message is by using the keyboard or pointing device.
For sender, subject and domain classification parameters the hierarchy is defined by the letter sequence in the text value of the classification parameter.
For size classification parameter the hierarchical sequence is defined in terms of range and subranges of size values.
The date classification parameter, the hierarchical sequence is defined in terms of date ranges and subranges.
The present invention also provides a method for analysing and prioritising received email messages using graphical techniques comprising.
defining search parameters and possible values for each parameter with corresponding graphical images, for identifying and/or prioritising received email messages,
parsing the contents of the email header and body contents and displaying the parameter values of the said messages in graphical form using the said graphical images,
grouping, and prioritising the said graphical message displays in accordance with user-defined requirements, and
accessing any message selected from the said graphical display.
The said search parameters and possible values are defined using a parameter definition table method containing parameter name, possible values and corresponding icon/symbol/letter/color.
The said parameters include sender, subject, and specific content keyword and/or phrase.
The said parameters values and corresponding graphical images include the use of buttons and icons in the graphical user interface that can be selected using a pointing device.
The said buttons are arranged in 17 columns and 14 rows i.e. a total of 238 buttons.
The parsing the contents of the email header and body contents is carried out by standard text parsing methods.
The grouping and prioritising the graphical display is carried out by graphical sorting methods.
The said accessing of any message is done by using the keyboard or pointing device.
The above method further comprises increasing and reducing the size of the graphical display images depending on the volume of email so as to cover as many images as possible on the screen.
The above method further comprises simultaneously displaying a screenful of significant number of e-mail contents, in separate scrollable frames, by mouse selection of e-mail button(s) or by search window means.
The above method further comprises replying any e-mail in its frame while viewing one screenful of frames of e-mail contents of the chosen group(s).
In another embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises a method for analysing and prioritising received email messages in a hierarchical structure consisting of
defining parameters for classifying received email messages,
classifying each email after parsing email content or header to obtain values of classification parameters,
arranging and displaying said classified email messages in a hierarchical structure,
descending or ascending to a particular level in the structured hierarchy,
accessing a message at the lower level of the hierarchy from said display.
The said parameters for classification include sender, user, subject, domain, keyword, size of the message and date of email message.
The parsing the contents of the email header and body contents is a standard text parsing method.
The displaying and selecting the said email messages in a hierarchical structure is by means of buttons in the graphical user interface.
The accessing of any message is carried out by using the keyboard or pointing device.
For sender, subject and domain classification parameters the hierarchy is defined by the letter sequence in the text value of the classification parameter.
For size classification parameter the hierarchical sequence is defined in terms of range and subranges of size values.
The date classification parameter, the hierarchical sequence is defined in terms of date ranges and subranges.
The instant invention further provides a computer program product comprising computer readable program code stored on computer readable storage medium embodied therein for causing a computer to analyse and prioritise received email messages, characterised in that, it includes:
computer readable code means configured for enabling the user to define search parameters and possible values for each parameter with corresponding graphical images, for identifying and/or prioritising received email messages,
computer readable code means configured for parsing the contents of the email header and body contents and displaying the parameter values of the said messages in graphical form using the said graphical images,
computer readable code means configured for grouping, and prioritising the said graphical message displays in accordance with user-defined requirements, and
computer readable code means configured for accessing any message selected from the said graphical display.
The said computer readable code means is configured for defining search parameters includes a parameter definition table containing parameter name, possible values and corresponding icon/symbol/letter/color.
The said parameters include sender, subject, and specific content keyword and/or phrase.
The said computer readable code means is configured for defining parameters values and corresponding graphical images includes buttons and icons in the graphical user interface that can be selected using a pointing device.
The said buttons are arranged in 17 columns and 14 rows i.e. a total of 238 buttons.
The computer readable code means is configured for parsing the contents of the email header and body contents is a standard text parsing means.
The said computer readable code means is configured for grouping and prioritising the graphical display is a graphical sorting means.
The said computer readable code means is configured for accessing any message is the keyboard or pointing device.
The above computer program product further comprises a computer readable code means configured for increasing and reducing the size of the graphical display images depending on the volume of email so as to cover as many images as possible on the screen
The above computer program product further comprises a computer readable code means configured for simultaneously displaying a screenful of significant number of e-mail contents, in separate scrollable frames; by mouse selection of e-mail button(s) or by search window means.
The above computer program product further comprises a computer readable code means configured for replying to any e-mail in its frame while viewing one screenful of frames of e-mail contents of the chosen group(s).
In another embodiment of the invention, the computer program product further comprises computer readable program code stored on computer readable storage medium embodied therein for causing a computer to analyse and prioritise the received email messages in a hierarchical structure, said computer program code comprising:
computer readable program code means configured for defining parameters for classifying received email messages,
computer readable program code means configured for classifying each email after parsing email contents or header to obtain values of classification parameters,
computer readable program code means configured for arranging and displaying said classified email messages in a hierarchical structure,
computer readable program code means configured for descending or ascending to a particular level in the structured hierarchy,
computer readable program code means configured for accessing a message at the lower level of the hierarchy from said display.
The said parameters for classification include sender, user, subject, domain, keyword, size of the message and date of email message.
The said computer readable program code means is configured for parsing the contents of the email header and body contents is a standard text parsing means.
The said computer readable program code means is configured for displaying and selecting the said email messages in a hierarchical structure is by means of buttons in the graphical user interface.
The said computer readable program code means configured for accessing any message is the keyboard or pointing device.
The said computer readable program code means for sender, subject and domain classification parameters the hierarchy is defined by the letter sequence in the text value of the classification parameter.
The said computer readable program code means for size classification parameter, the hierarchical sequence is defined in terms of range and subranges of size values.
The said computer readable program code means for the date classification parameter, the hierarchical sequence is defined in terms of date ranges and subranges.